Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm glad to speak to this motion, and I thank the member for Mackellar for bringing it forward for debate. I say at the outset that we're not delaying this critical area of reform; we've begun to deliver on it already. We'll do more of that this week, and we'll keep going on that path until the job is done.

As the member for Mackellar says, the basic situation with respect to Australia's environment is not hard to understand. It's not a heartening story that the Australia state of the environment 2021 report found our environment is poor and deteriorating. The previous government hid that report out of embarrassment at their inaction. In 2020 Professor Graeme Samuel produced his independent review of the EPBC Act and found that Australia's natural environment and iconic places are in an overall state of decline and are under increasing threat. What did the coalition government do in response to that report? Sadly, nothing. So we come to government under no illusion that our country's environment and biodiversity have undergone significant harm and are facing extraordinary pressures—especially now, through climate change—and we're responding to that crisis which was utterly neglected for a decade by a coalition government that slashed funding to the environment department by 40 per cent.

As the member for Mackellar acknowledges, it's a large and complex task. But it is urgent, and the Minister for the Environment and Water has acted on the basis there is no time to waste. That's why we have pushed out the environmental protection effort in every direction, getting on with the larger regulatory reform task while at the same time pushing ahead immediately with a number of restorative measures. Indeed, in the first two years of the Albanese Labor government we've tripled the size of the Macquarie Island Marine Park, adding a protected marine zone larger than the size of Germany. We've kicked off the $200 million Urban Rivers and Catchments Program. We've made the global 30 by 30 commitment, and we'll conserve, separately, 30 per cent of our land and marine territory by 2030. We've joined the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution. We've expanded our Antarctic science program. We're investing $23 million over the next year to develop a new national circular economy framework, and we've provided $224.5 million over the next four years through the Saving Native Species Program to support the recovery of our unique plants, animals and ecological communities.

We've done those things while working steadily to achieve EPBC reform—the first instalment of which we delivered as quickly as possible last year, with an expanded and strengthened water trigger as promised. Now we're delivering the next stage of the nature positive reforms, with the creation of Australia's first independent environmental protection agency—a long-awaited and massive reform—and, alongside that, the critically important new function of Environment Information Australia.

For too long we simply haven't been able to see clearly the joined-up picture of Australia's environmental condition and biodiversity. That's resulted in a piecemeal approach to assessing impact, which has put our environment on the path to death by a thousand cuts. We cannot allow that to continue, and that's why we're implementing the recommendations of the Samuel review to significantly update Australia's national environmental laws. It's important to recognise that the approach we're taking to deliver that reform is endorsed by Graeme Samuel himself; it's important for people to recognise that.

The current EPBC Act is more than 1,000 pages long, and the complexity of the reform task is considerable. The consultation process to date has been broad, searching and extensive. While I've heard from lots of people who understandably want this reform completed as quickly as possible, I've also heard from lots of community members and, indeed, environmental stakeholders who keep insisting, quite rightly, that consultation cannot be rushed. This reform cannot be rushed. That kind of balance between rapid reform towards a much-needed change and proper consultative engagement that delivers high-quality and lasting reform is precisely the challenge of good government. I say with great respect to the member for Mackellar that it's often been the case with members of the crossbench that one day we'll hear things aren't being done quickly enough and the next day we'll hear things are being too done too quickly. That's politics, I guess; certainly it's convenient if you want to create the impression from time to time that there's something not quite right about the government, which—hallelujah—the crossbench is always here to help us correct.

I understand the strength of logic that is driving the call on us, the Australian government, from the broader Australian community to make some stark and substantial changes as quickly and as resolutely as can be done. That has always been a huge focus of my work. People should know that in Tanya Plibersek, the member for Sydney, they have a Minister for the Environment who is absolutely committed and absolutely indefatigable in her application to that task.

Finally, let me say clearly that, contrary to the terms of this motion, we have not resiled from anything. The Australian environment desperately needs a period of stable, sustained reform in government—an Albanese Labor government.

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